Our Alaska adventure on the Norwegian Sun, June 5-12

[MDSue]

Hello, We just booked this same itinerary for next September (2018). We have quite a ways to go, but I am so thrilled to find your review. One day in from booking and I already have some great ideas just from reading your posts and looking at your pics. Thanks and keep them coming!

Susan

[Mitch2016]

Leaving Carcross, we had to make a brisk pace back down to Fraser so the other folks in the van to make the train so we didn't have too many stops until we came across this guy....

 

He doesn't appear to be very old....I'm guessing maybe a 2 year old? He was munching away on the grass and dandelions! Could care less we were there...mind you safely in the van, with the windows rolled up!

 

He looked so thin, and I just wanted to give the poor guy a bath! Hopefully he is fattening up before this winter! I took a video of him munching on the grass etc., and we soon had to take off and cruise down the highway. Did have to make one more stop as there was a stunning photo I wanted to get and I have to say, it is my favorite "reflection" photo of the whole trip...

 

Just amazes me that large body of water, could be just like glass. Beautiful....

 

Of course the Yukon sign. We captured our sign pictures backwards....got the Welcome to Alaska and Yukon signs as we were leaving them, not entering them. That way, we missed the crowds from the larger tour buses!

 

Some folks kayaking....would hate to tip over in this water. Brrrrr!

 

Look again how clear this water is....on the river!! Don't see it looking like that here in Iowa!

[Mitch2016]

After we dropped off our van mates to pick up their train to take back to Skagway we hit the highway again. We made a stop as the White Pass Rail Summit train was stopped, and was getting ready to work it's way back down to back Skagway. This is an old steam engine pulling vintage cars. Was so cool to hear it fire up, and start chugging down the rail....the sound bounced off the rock of the mountains and just echoed around you.....

 

 

 

I just love these old trains....just takes you back to the 1800's doesn't it?

 

Look at the silt in this water....yuck.

 

This is a sign I will probably never see again in my lifetime......

 

One last scenery shot before we get back into Skagway...

[Mitch2016]

Kathy got us back to Skagway, and we drove by Dave's house and saw his little red/white car out. He had just returned from being gone over the winter, enduring treatment for cancer that was diagnosed last fall. I'm sure being back in Skagway for the summer is certain to help him feel better. He was so nice to chat with when we had first booked this trip last summer....

 

Isn't it just the cutest?

 

We went by the Gold Rush Cemetery and the Lower Reid Falls before Kathy dropped us off downtown to walk around the sites and do a little shopping. She was so gracious, she gave me her phone number in case we needed a ride back to the ship. Truly a class organization, so if you aren't sure about doing a tour with Dyea Dave, do it. It has to be one of the highlights of our 2 week trip to Alaska.

 

John is a history buff and has read a lot about Skagway and it's history. Of course, knowing the history of Soapy Smith and Frank Reid....he had to see their final resting places.

 

 

Obviously not the original marker, makes you wonder if he ever had one. Kind of sad, even though he was not the most liked person in Skagway.

 

Now....look at Frank Reid's monument, with a fairly fresh rose laying across the marker.

 

Lower Reid Falls.....they were heavy and flowing rapidly.

[Mitch2016]

We stopped at the local Library to tap into their WiFi to touch base with family, than wandered around town. There is a great visitor center that shows a short film on the history of Skagway and the Gold Rush. People back then went crazy to get here, and it was all over in 2 years.

 

This statue depicts the Tlingit Guide helping the prospector over the pass

 

 

Can you imagine the amount of snow that this churns through and throws....would not want to be standing in front of it!

 

Look how narrow and skinny that rail is compared to today's train tracks....

 

Looking north down the main drag. A lot of the same buildings are standing today as they were 100 years ago. If you look along the right hand store names, do you see Kirmse's Curios? Now, look at the next picture below. This was how they advertised way back then....painting on the side of the mountain. Early billboards!

 

Edited July 30, 2017 by Mitch2016

[Mitch2016]

Some of the historical buildings in Skagway that have been here well over 100 years. This whole area is on the National Historical Registry and a lot of these buildings have been refurbished to look as they originally did during the Gold Rush.

 

Oh the stories that were told by future prospectors staying here as they gathered supplies for their trip up the Chilkoot Trail to homestead. I can not imagine that journey and how hard it had to have been.

 

Arctic Brotherhood Hall, established in 1899

 

Lynch and Kennedy Dry Goods Store

 

 

The interior of the Red Onion Saloon. We did not do the brothel tour, and I wish now that we had. Have heard that it is haunted, seeing a documentary on TV about it. Huh.....

[Mitch2016]

It had been another full day....our third in a row. We got back to the ship in time to change and get to the Stardust Theatre. Tonight, as they had comedian Fred Bevil from Fargo, ND and he was hysterical. So funny, and could relate to so many things. Felt good to have a few adult beverages, sit back and laugh. After the show, we had a late dinner in the main dining room. Dinner was good, but dessert was better!

 

We made it back to the ship about 6:30. The sky had been looking ominous since we got back to Skagway. It sprinkled just a little and was so windy....which only made sense as Skagway in Tlingit means "Windy Place".

 

Eating late in the evening does have it's advantages.....there weren't too many people left, and we got seated right away by a window and had a very attentive server that was spot on!

 

This was my dessert....doesn't that Flan look refreshing.....it was oh so good!

 

John had chocolate lava cake which was warm, with ice cream/strawberries (he snuck a bite before I could get picture) :)

 

Greeting us when we got back to the room was our towel animal....Mr. Elephant along with our guide to Glacier Bay National Park which we would use tomorrow!

[Mitch2016]

Hello, We just booked this same itinerary for next September (2018). We have quite a ways to go, but I am so thrilled to find your review. One day in from booking and I already have some great ideas just from reading your posts and looking at your pics. Thanks and keep them coming!

Susan

 

Susan, you will have a wonderful trip. When we first booked our trip, our countdown was at 488 days! I had a lot of time to plan and figure out what we wanted to see/do. I hope that others have found my review helpful and are able to use some of the information. I apologize it has taken so long, but I don't have a lot of time to work on it in the evening so just peck away when I can. If you have questions, I may be able to help :)

[Mitch2016]

Day 6 - Glacier Bay National Park

 

We got ready for the day turning on the bridge cam on the TV as we had an inside stateroom, and there was fog and clouds. We felt a sudden let down and wondered if we would be able to see anything in Glacier Bay at all. We proceeded to get ready and went up to breakfast. For the first time, we did not eat outside as it was much cooler in the bay, so ate inside at the Garden Cafe and watched the scenery go by. This was the only day that it was pretty crowded in the buffet as others had the same idea. I must say, NCL puts on a good breakfast buffet. Loved their cooked to order egg/omelet station and have never seen so much bacon in my life! After breakfast, we listened to the overhead announcements and then wandered outside as we were approaching Marjorie Glacier first.

 

We decided to stay on the promenade deck instead of going all the way to the top since it was cloudy/foggy, overcast. It was much quieter down there and ship would sit in position for a bit then do a 360, so we would then just dash inside to cross to the other side of the promenade to view upon the Glacier. I was lucky enough to capture on video a major calving as a wide section of the glacier front slid off leaving a small glacier cave. It was incredible to see!

 

This is what first greeted us as we walked out on deck....cloudy, foggy, overcast. We weren't sure if we would see anything or not. Hopefully, as time went the clouds would lift and we would have clear viewing.

 

After breakfast, it was getting much better. You can start to see little growlers and bergy bits of ice the closer we got to Marjorie Glacier. Glacial ice is extremely hard and should be given a wide birth. Can clearly understand why they don't get extremely close to the glaciers. The ice you see on top of the water, is probably doubled underneath and you can't see it.

 

 

Our first glimpse of Marjorie Glacier. John took these first few pictures from the upper decks at the Great Outdoors with our Sony 400HV camera. We brought it, as it has an incredible zoom....but the colors are somewhat dull and more of a green tone. When we got closer, is when we moved down to the Promenade Deck and there were very few people down there...was so peaceful and quiet. Everyone was talking with hushed tones....was almost like a sacred place. The closer we got, the clearer it got.

 

Time to move to the Promenade.....it was getting really crowded up top!

[Mitch2016]

Most of the pictures now, I took with my cell phone and it has a more true color. It really varied as different degrees of sunlight would get through the clouds, the coloring changed. Absolutely amazing and to think how old the glacial face is. The Marjorie Glacier is about a mile wide, and 250 feet high at the face with 100 feet below the water. It is 21 miles long, and advancing about 30 feet per year the past couple decades.

 

 

Coming around the corner of the Marjorie Glacier.

 

Not able to capture the whole glacier from this close, but this is the section that gets a new look before we leave!

 

Especially the section right in the middle, to the left of the exposed rock.

[Mitch2016]

I apologize, my cellphone doesn't have the best zoom as the clarity gets poor when zoomed out fully, maybe Samsung will improve on that in the future. This next series of shots were pretty cool in real life.....and sound! I wish we could post videos on here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks a lot different now! The guys in the boat I'm sure had an incredible show....good thing they weren't close to the wake. It did make a little tsunami that flowed to the left and slammed into the section of glacier that was sticking out. Pretty impressive....

Edited July 30, 2017 by Mitch2016

[Mitch2016]

We left Marjerie Glacier and made our way on to the next one, Lamplugh Glacier. I am so thankful that we got to the the Glaciers, but am somewhat disappointed that the cloud ceiling was so low and we really couldn't get the full beauty of the bay. I want to see what's behind those clouds! It was still a wonderful day.....

 

Marjerie Glacier has a different look to it's face then when we arrived and it was really great to experience.

 

 

 

This glacier has so much more color, grit and dirt. Incredible.....

 

Can you see the little bit of ice calving?

 

Seeing these Kayaks in front of the face, gives you a little scale to just how big and fantastic they are.

Edited July 30, 2017 by Mitch2016

[Mitch2016]

Moving out of Glacier Bay and the skies really didn't clear...still thick low cloud ceilings. We watched the scenery for awhile, but was difficult to see anything. I tried looking for anything along the shore line, like brown fuzzies, seals, whales but we didn't see much.

 

Leaving Lampaugh Glacier, you can still see how low the cloud ceiling was.

 

 

 

The Great Outdoors for a little snack and to watch the scenery and water for wildlife....struck out there.

 

Goodbye Glacier Bay National Park

[Mitch2016]

Another full day spent out and about, taking in Glacier Bay, watching the scenery go by. A little disappointing to not see anything above the glaciers, but still incredible to be there. If you are debating on whether to go on an intinerary that includes this....do it. I doubt that we'll ever get back as we like to see new places, so very thankful that we saw what we did. We ate dinner tonight at the Moderno Brazilian Steakhouse. One tip....don't fill up on the fantastic salad bar, even though that is very hard to not want to try everything! They bring around all kinds of different meats along with some sides, and will keep bringing meat until you tell them to stop! Was really a lot of fun! NCL had an Happy Anniversary cake for us as I had mentioned when talking to one of the reps months ago on the phone, that we were celebrating our 29th Anniverary. We had it delivered to our room later to enjoy after the final production cast show where we got to see a lot of the crew, including the captain. Was a really fun night!

 

Tonight greeting us before we went to change, was this towel monkey. Again, very cute!

 

One of the servers, bringing more meat to the table next door. Several servers would walk around with all different meats, bacon wrapped chicken, sirloin, fillet, lamb, sausages (brats).....tried them all!

 

After the production tonight in the Stardust Theatre and the games Dazzles, we went back to our room and had our cake for dessert! The cake was really good....tasted a lot like a Twinkie but much more dense. Icing was fantastic!

 

The production tonight was called World Beat and the cast did different songs and dance from various regions and countries around the world. Afterward, the cruise director Dave introduced the officers, staff and crew on the ship, like housekeeping, bars and dining servers, chefs, etc....and the captain, who then came down the to the stage. Then, we got to watch Pitbull and the NCL commercial and we definitely did feel "like a Norwegian now" after all was done. It was a lot of fun! Was neat to have the crew meet us outside the doors. The captain of the ship is on the left, shorter gentleman with the balding head.

 

Another incredible day. Tomorrow, is our last day of the cruise and hoping to get in to see Hubbard Glacier.

[Mitch2016]

Day 7 - Hubbard Glacier

 

Well today is our last day on the Norwegian Sun....it has been an incredible trip so far. Our first cruise, and our first trip to Alaska. After the cruise, we are spending some time in Alaska. We'll be taking the train to Anchorage to get our rental car, then spending a couple nights in Hatchers Pass and a couple nights in Seward before we have to fly home.

 

Today, we are hoping to see Hubbard Glacier. When we awoke, it wasn't looking very good. At first, we heard an announcement that we probably weren't going to get in due to low cloud ceiling and fog, but the captain was watching to see if it would lift. After about an hour, an announcement came over that the Captain was going to try and get as close as he could, but there was a lot of ice and visibility was low. We took off to the Promenade deck again and John got some pictures of the crew testing the lifeboats.....that was kind of a treat to see. Glad it was just a practice!

 

 

 

 

A couple dirty icebergs floating....they were pretty good size and I'm sure a lot bigger under the water.

 

Here is a good shot of how low the cloud ceiling is and the fog...lots of ice in the water. Can totally understand why the Captain was being cautious.

[Mitch2016]

Hubbard Glacier is huge....about 5 milies across at the face. It isn't very tall, but it is wide. With the fog, it was really difficult to get a good picture of the glacier, and we were about 2 miles away from the front but still.....what we saw was very impressive.

 

I took this photo with my cell phone, the one above was taken with John's camera the Sony 400HV. My photo is more true to the color of the glacier.

 

Here's almost the full glacier taken from distance of several miles. I wish we could have gotten closer and it was a clear day, but the glacier was still beautiful.

 

These icebergs may look kind of small....but their more like the size of a ranch sized house.

 

Occasionally zooming in, I was able to get a good shot. I think this is really cool in the fog....doesn't it look cold!?

 

This berg is about the size of a VW Bug....glacier ice is very very hard so understandably Captain didn't want to get too close.

[Mitch2016]

 

Goodbye Hubbard Glacier....was incredible to see you! Maybe we'll meet again!

 

After we spent time taking in the beauty of Hubbard Glacier, we went to the main dining room for some breakfast. I had Eggs Benedict with salmon and spinach.....it was fantastic! After breakfast, we wandered around and got some pictures, we hadn't gotten before. Checked on our final bill for the week....was pretty impressed kept it around $100!

 

Atrium Elevators....

 

People just doing the same thing we were....checking on final bill, and just relaxing on our last sea day...

 

The observation lounge with its expansive windows. People were reading, talking, sleeping....whatever you wanted to do.

[Mitch2016]

We spent the afternoon, packing and organizing our luggage to fit all our purchases and get our overnight bag ready and the others ready to put out in the hall that night. We were taking the train so had to have the right tags put on our luggage and only allowed one piece to carry off the ship with us, small that would go with us on the train. That took careful repacking. John took some pictures of the inside cabin which worked well for us...like I said, we weren't in it much.

 

Don't mind the mess....our towel animal was already there to greet us this afternoon when we went back to pack. Hello Mr. Gorilla!

 

Looking in from the door

 

Small couch which was nice to have when you wanted a place to sit, but didn't want to sit in the bed.

 

Shot from the couch to the dressers/closet/shelves/desk

 

The bathroom....we found it was plenty room enough. Had storage space around the mirror for ya know....bathroom stuff and the shower/curtain was no problem. The shower head can be hand held so even in cramped spaces, you can reach everything!

 

Having an inside cabin I wanted some kind of night light so when we got up in the night, the room wasn't pitch. The white fixture with the silver base on the bathroom vanity worked perfectly. It's LED and runs on 3 AAA batteries....gave off the perfect light.

 

Mr. Gorilla

[Mitch2016]

Our last specialty meal on the ship was at the Teppanyaki. All the specialties were good, but I don't think I would do this one again. Maybe we just had a fuddy duddy bunch of people, but the chefs actions were very scripted and it just wasn't "fun" like I thought and heard it would be. Before we went to dinner, we went to the Sports Bar for some adult beverages and watched the Stanley Cup Final....Penguins won if you hadn't heard!

 

 

 

Our salad....like I said, the food and service was good. It just wasn't a good group of fun people and the chefs were very scripted....going through the motion.

 

 

I did it again....started eating before the picture. I had the shrimp/scallops with the fried rice and it was very good.

 

I had the green tea cake and ice cream for dessert, John had the fresh fruit plate for dessert....his was better.

 

We went back to the cabin after dinner to put our luggage out, and head to bed. We needed to be up at 4:30 a.m. so we could get breakfast in and meet in the Stardust Lounge at 6:00 to depart the ship. We had set an alarm, but we also had a wake up call which worked well.....didn't want to be late!

[Mitch2016]

Disembark Day

 

Today was the day our cruise portion of our trip would end. We took the train to Anchorage to pick up our rental car and then spent some time doing our own thing in Alaska with trips to Independence Mine State Park, Horseback riding Knik River basin, Talkeetna for flight around Denali (which was cancelled due to weather on mountain) but fun day, Reindeer Farm, Eklutna (Russian Orthodox Church and Spirit Boxes), ULU factory, Kenai Fjords National Park Tour, Raft rip down Kenai River, Alyeska Tram.....

 

All in all an incredible trip and one we will never forget. We hope to someday return to Alaska, but there is so much of this world that we have not seen yet. We enjoyed our cruise so much, I have already booked us on a Western Caribbean on NCL and then after that...will plan on a trip up the NE Coastline/Canada. Who knows....maybe we'll get back over to Europe. Would love to sail around the British Isles, Norway Fjords, Germany/Austria, Greece.....again so much to see, so little time.

 

I hope this review has been helpful and I know I probably got a little carried away with the pictures, but I just wanted to share with everyone what we saw and did and what they have to look forward to.

 

Will watch and if there is interest, may extend the review for our land trip which was absolutely incredible. Let me know if you want me to continue with that portion!! I may just do it anyway, but it will take time as life is crazy busy and just need to get sections in when I can.

 

Thank you to Cruise Critic as I don't think we would have been able to pull this off and plan all this without your suggestions, recommendations and photos from other folks who have done this fantastic trip. Thank you so much!

[katfer]

Thank you so much! I have your review on my favorite page so I don't miss anything!! We leave in am for Anchorage!!

[cuterlmt]

Thank you for your wonderful review! We are about 25 days away from our back to back on the Sun. Really great pictures of your room. We are going to be in an inside room as well, so it's nice to see clearer pictures.

So glad you had such a great trip - we are very much looking forward to it.

Thank you again for taking the time to do the review.

[mapleleaves]

I'd like to hear about your land travel ! and given the number of questions people have about land travel, it would be helpful information.

You could save yourself some time by just doing an overview .....where you stayed, how you travelled, sights, activities.

[dizzlepop]

Mitch,

 

Your review was so fantastic! Thank you for all the time and effort it took to document everything, and sharing all of your lovely photos! We are headed out on NCL this Sunday out of Seattle. I've made notes of what not to miss, thanks to you!

[Mitch2016]

Thank you so much! I have your review on my favorite page so I don't miss anything!! We leave in am for Anchorage!!

 

Have an incredible trip! It's hard to believe we have been home almost 2 months already. Will be looking forward to your report!